


All I Need's An Answer, Please

by LazyWriterGirl



Series: Femslash February 2017 - I Write Best When I'm Writing Gay [11]
Category: Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: Anna Loves Money and Miriel Equally Okay, Anna is Silly About Feelings, Everything is For Science, F/F, Femslash February 2017, Fluff, Miriel Is Seriously Studying Crystals and Gems, Miriel is Very Specific About The Scientific Method, Prompt Fill, Prompt: Topaz, The Prompt Is Barely Touched Upon, This Is Why You Don't Tell Lies, rarepair
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-01
Updated: 2017-03-01
Packaged: 2018-09-27 15:27:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,946
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10028273
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LazyWriterGirl/pseuds/LazyWriterGirl
Summary: “Hey Miri…what’s your favourite gemstone?”“Miriel, dear. And why would you be asking after the gemstone to which I am most partial, Anna?”“I’m…doing a little experiment...for science!”Or, Anna is bothered by something and endeavours to learn more about the woman she loves, but a simple lie renders her mission…a little more difficult than it should be.Femslash February Prompt 11/12 - Topaz





	

If anybody asks, Anna will say it’s all Robin’s fault. Ever since the woman’s talk with her about “things more important than money” like “love” and “other stuff” she’s been distracted. And she knows that Robin didn’t _mean_ to upset her, but she doesn’t handle the implication that she loves money more than Miriel very well, and Robin implying that she cares more about money than about truly getting to know Miriel, well…that’s upsetting.

Besides, it isn’t _true_ , per se…she loves money and Miriel equally; yes, that’s it.

Anyway, ever since that talk with Robin, Anna’s been doing poorly around the shop. She knows that it’s peace time now, that they’ve been free of Gangrel for a year and there’s nowhere to go but up from here, and the Shepherds’ stipend is honestly not that bad, but still. Now, of all times, when the market game is most vulnerable to shifts and changes, she’s losing her edge. She’s been off her game, unable to move as much merchandise as she normally does.

And it is _upsetting_.

So very, very upsetting.

 

The thought of all that beautiful gold lining somebody _else’s_ pockets…ugh, spare her the thoughts, cruel world!

 

“Anna, dear, I would very much appreciate if you could keep your internal musings _internal_ , as your muttering is distracting. And perhaps, as well, you might relocate for a while, as your pacing is disrupting the ground and I am in need of stable surroundings for this following experiment.”

Anna looks down at the floor, where she has indeed been pacing. The various gemstones that Miriel has laid out sparkle back up at her, winking with every step—she supposes that she really _is_ making it difficult for Miriel to do…whatever it is she’s doing. Whatever it is, it seems…interesting. She’d best not get in the way.

“Of course. I’ll just be in the other room then, dear,” she says, removing herself from the room so that Miriel can continue with her experiment uninterrupted. They’ve gotten to be fairly good at calling each other out on the little things like that, at keeping each other acting semi-normal, and Anna loves that. Loves this whole domestic set-up that they have going on—even though a part of her, she suspects, will always yearn for the life of a travelling saleswoman.

Anyway, point of the matter is that yes, she _does_ love Miriel, really, she does. She loves everything about the other woman, from the way she’s always scribbling in that journal of hers to the way she gets upset with Anna for messing up her experiments (unintentionally), and from the way most of her kisses are quick little distracted pecks to the way she _never. Shuts. Up._

Not even in bed.

Of course, Anna loves Miriel for a million reasons other than that, but that last one is a favourite.

“Anna, is there a reason why you are laughing to yourself as you pace about? Have you come upon some entertaining stimuli that would garner such a reaction, or is your merriment a product of yet more of your internalizations?”

“The second one, I think, Miri,” says Anna as Robin’s voice echoes in her head, ruining the “merriment”.

“Miriel, dear.”

“Of course, Miri.”

“ _Miriel_ , dear.”

“Yes, yes, Miriel.”

_So you love her, great, but what do you know about Miriel that we don’t?_

Anna scoffs. There’s a ton of things that she knows about Miriel that she’s damn sure _nobody_ else knows about—not that many of those details are important for anyone other than her to know, thank you very much—but okay, fine, so maybe she doesn’t know the silly little things like “Miriel’s favourite colour” or “Miriel’s favourite play” or “The food that Miriel prefers to eat while she’s staying up most night working on yet another science project”. So, she doesn’t know those things (yet). So, what?

 

Anyway, those are really basic questions…if Anna wants to learn something new about Miriel, she should ask something _unexpected_.

 

“Hey, Miri,” she calls, determined to start proving that Robin is wrong _right this second_ , “what’s your favourite gemstone?”

“Miriel, dear. And why would you be asking after the gemstone to which I am most partial, Anna?”

“I’m…doing a little experiment...for science!” she says, hoping that the reasoning will fly. Granted, she knows that Miriel’s perhaps too brilliant not to question such a blatant lie, but she’s hoping that the other woman’s natural curiosity will take over in this case.

For a second there is no sound except for the scribbling of a quill against parchment, and then Miriel says, an air of wariness in her tone, “What kind of experiment?”

“I’m doing a…study…really.”

“What sort of a study could require the knowledge of which gemstone I am most partial to?”

“It’s a survey of the Shepherds, really,” Anna says, poking her head back into the room where Miriel has laid all the gemstones in the house out in a pattern that makes absolutely no sense to Anna.

“And what purpose would such a survey serve outside of existing merely for the sake of amusing, if useless, data?”

“I was thinking of…getting more gem-encrusted items, you know, for the shop, since those seem to be a big hit with people of all demographics…and the Shepherds are from such a diverse population that I feel they would be…representative as a sample?”

“Ah, so you developed this little study to further your business, is that so?”

Anna nods, hoping that she hasn’t said anything too ridiculous. Why couldn’t she just have told the truth? She’s just trying to get to know her lover a little better. The only reason why she’d asked about gemstones and not something equally unexpected is because Miriel’s been fiddling with the damned things for _days_ now.

Miriel pauses, then thinks a bit, then asks, “I wonder how effective this study would be, considering that there are only twenty-four Shepherds, including you and I, and most scientific journals state that the minimum effective sample size of any given population in an experiment should be at least _thirty_ …”

“Miriel, please…just. Could you tell me? Do you even _have_ a favourite gemstone?”

“Favourite here is a word not so easily quantifiable, and so it is a good thing that this study of yours is more a survey than an actual experiment, as you had stated previously. That being said, one must wonder how this data will help at all, as there exist a large number of gemstones from which the men and women of the Shepherds might choose a favourite. Following that, one must also then take into consideration _which_ of the Shepherds favour which gemstones, as there might be influences of upbringing and culture and so on which colour the response and—

“Miriel, I love you, but _please_ —

“Now Anna, what could your affections, though appreciated and certainly mutually felt and expressed, have to do with this study?’

“Nothing, really, but I—

“Further, would it not be better to perform this with the people for whom your shop is a regular place of interest, rather than with myself and our comrades—

“Miriel, all I need is an answer, please!”

The request comes out much more frantically than she’d hope it would, but even Anna’s patience—renowned amongst the Shepherds and honed by long hours behind a seller’s counter—has its limits. And though she does, truly, really love Miriel, the woman has a knack for running Anna’s patience thin.

“Why do you sound so strained and impatient, dear?” Miriel asks, and Anna can detect the change in Miriel’s tone. Gone for the moment is her usual lovely, dry scientific wit, replaced by the care that lingers ever underneath the surface.

Anna feels slightly embarrassed at her own behaviour. She should have been honest from the beginning. “Well, you see, a few days ago, Robin and I were talking and she…basically implied that I don’t _love_ you as much as I love money, and when I asked how she could say that she said,” Anna takes a moment to remember the words, “she said that I “know so much about how to make money, but so little about how to make Miriel laugh” and how to show you that I care.”

“And so you were bothered by this and thought to create this story of a survey study to…learn my favourite gemstone?”

“I thought that a question like what your favourite colour is would be too simple and common. I love you, Miri…more than money. Or at least, as much as money. And I’m sorry if you haven’t felt that way.”

Anna looks down at the gemstones all lined up in their strange little pattern, and she feels incredibly sheepish. She’s sure that Miriel isn’t too bothered by her silliness, but she herself cannot believe that she’s acted so strangely. Yet more proof that she has been thrown completely off her game by this whole “loving money more than Miriel” thing.

It’s not true.

Miriel stands, and the first thing Anna notices is how she doesn’t care to step around the gemstones on the floor. They go scattering out in different directions, as if they were barely there. “Anna, I know that you love me. You are simply a businesswoman—and one of the best I have ever seen—and it is natural that you would have a preoccupation with your livelihood. At the same time, I can assure you, with the utmost sincerity, that I am well aware of your love for me.”

Miriel’s hand is on her face and the moment is so tender that Anna is afraid to speak, afraid to break it. She speaks anyway, because she’s Anna and she still hasn’t gotten an answer to her question. “I’m glad! But um, while we’re on the subject, could you tell me what your favourite gemstone is, if you have one?”

Miriel thinks for only a second, “Topaz.”

That isn’t what she’d been expecting, not even close. “Oh? _Why_?”

To her surprise, Miriel only laughs, kissing her quickly before backing away, eyes on the ground. “You asked me to tell you, Anna, and I have. Now, help me find the rest of the stones and perhaps I will give you _reasons_ to go along with it.”

Anna laughs—sometimes Miriel can be really funny—but her laughter dies away when she notices the bespectacled woman standing there, waiting. “Oh, you were serious?”

“Yes, Anna, I was.”

“What’s this experiment even about, anyway?”

“According to some new wave scientists, crystals and gems hold certain powers. I’m arranging them to see if such claims are founded—the pattern is from a leaflet that was being handed out in the square the other day, and it should prove an interesting study, I believe. Some people have apparently already begun this craze of praying to crystals and wearing them for their supposed powers, but to have concrete proof—

“Wait, wait, hold on a second. People are going around _buying_ crystals and gemstones because they might have powers?” Anna can’t help it, the numbers in her head begin to click higher and higher. If she could get her hands on a wide variety of gemstones, she’d certainly be able to—

“Anna, dear, I’m certain that the idea currently rolling about in your head will cut you quite a profit, but for the mean time I would certainly appreciate your assistance in the matter of relocating all the gemstones that were displaced in my show of affection towards you.”

“Yes, of course Miri.”

“Mirel, dear, Miriel.”


End file.
